1. Background


Share of Urban Population and Per Captita GDP in 2022


Major Cities in Asia (Nighttime Light Intensity in 2013)

Compare with Europe

2. Theoretical Background


The economic forces leading to urban formation/growth and their economic benefits:

  • Centripetal forces (pulling towards the center)

    • Natural advantages

      • Harbors, rivers

      • Central locations

    • Market-size

      • Access to markets (backward linkages)

      • Access to products (forward linkages)

      • Thick labor markets

  • Centrifugal forces (pushing away from the center)

    • Market-media forces

      • Commuting costs, urban land rent

      • Pull of dispersed resources

    • Non-market forces

      • Congestion

      • Pollution

  • Increasing Returns

    • higher wage, income, growth
    • the question is how? Transport costs and preference of differentiated goods are used to explain the emergence of cities in Spatial economics. See Racetrack Economy

source: Krugman (1994)


3. Measuring cities


  • Administrative boundaries are not helpful (often harmful)

    • City cannot be defined administratively

  • Population density is the most common measure but that is not sufficient

    • Densely populated areas without infrastructure are slumps. For example Dharavi (BBC)

    Source: commons.wikimedia.org

    • Places of dense infrastructure without people are ghost-towns

    • Cities should me examined considering (i) population density, (ii) infrastructure density and (iii) mobility Keola (2018)


4. Challenges of Asia Cities

  • Lack of infrastructure

    • limited infrastructure development capacity

    • limited local industrial development

  • Spatial mismatch of people and infrastructure

  • Lack of intra- and inter-city mobility

  • Economic activities impacts on environment

    • Cities are still the major polluters in many Asia cities. Nitrogen Dioxide emission in East Asia (2020 VS 2019) Source: Author based on Google Earth Engine.